Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clutch for a vehicle and, more particularly, to a clutch for a vehicle that may be maintained in a connected or disconnected state even when a clutch pedal is released.
Description of Related Art
In general, in automatic transmission vehicles, power output from an engine is transmitted to an automatic transmission by the medium of a torque converter, and the power-received automatic transmission joins or disconnects a plurality of clutch disks to implements various transmission levels.
The use of the torque converter is to absorb transmission impact that may be generated when an engine and a transmission are directly connected like a manual transmission, and a fluid included in the torque converter enables power transmission in a non-direct connection state with an engine.
However, for this reason, power is lost in the process of power transmission, and thus, a dual-clutch transmission (DCT) using a plurality of clutches obtaining all the advantages of a clutch of a manual transmission, while reducing transmission impact when a speed is changed was developed and has been applied to some types of vehicles.
The DCT uses a plurality of clutches, generally, two clutches, and clutches respectively used for even numbered gears and odd numbered gears are alternately connected to suppress impact generation when a speed is changed and minimize loss in power transmission.
However, in the DCT, while any one of the two clutches is maintained to be connected, the other should be disconnected, and here, in order to maintain the connected or disconnected state, hydraulic pressure should be continuously applied to the clutches, degrading fuel efficiency.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.